It was just after 1:00 in the morning. Their friends had left. It had been an awkward night. He and Debra had one of their fights that wasn't a fight and Tori and David hadn't said more than two words to each other. After they had left, Debra had taken him to bed. It was angry sex. It was good, but he always came away from angry sex with a combination of satisfaction and disgust. She was drunk enough on wine to pass out. She would be hung over in the morning and still angry with him. Luckily, she wasn't the type of person to fight it out. She would punish him with dirty looks and cold shoulders for about three days and then stick the argument into the vault with all of their past conflicts to be pulled out and used against him when he least expected it.
It was not a good marriage but it was the one he had. They were about to celebrate their twentieth anniversary. It was a little late now to do much about it.
He was smoking the end of the pack of cigarettes Tori and left on the patio table and reading the news on his phone when the notification flashed across the top. Her contact information was so old and unused he had never updated the misspelling. It said the message was from Toni.
"You guys okay?"
"Sure. Just a normal Saturday night. You?"
"Fine. I guess." She said back.
"I'm smoking your cigarettes."
"Fucker! I'm out now buying some."
"Where?"
"The store. Why?"
"Which store?"
"The convenience store."
"On Park?"
"Yeah."
"Are you smoking one before you leave?"
"I can."
"Do that."
He took his son's truck so he didn't have to open the garage. It was less than a mile. He hadn't even put on shoes. He saw the tall thin brunette standing off to the side beneath a tree. He pulled in and parked the little pickup beside her fancy Japanese sedan.
"What are you doing?" She asked when he got out. He didn't say a word. He walked to her. Callouses on his feet were enough to insulate him from the rough asphalt. She was in a striped pair of men's boxers and a tank top that clung to her smallish breasts. He was on her before she could say anything further.
It was a bold, daring, stupid, and unsolicited move. With his hand placed gently on her cheek and his thumb pressed along her jawline he kissed her. She moved her free hand to his arm and gripped him. She extended her other arm and the long wisp of smoke streamed upward through the still night air.
She kissed him back.
She moaned and pressed her hips against him as his hand found her breast.
When finally he released her and stepped back to catch his breath she said nothing. She stood there, her weight mostly on one leg as she thrust her hip out to the side. It was a model's pose. She took a last drag from the cigarette that had nearly burned out and pressed it out on the ground beneath a rubber flip-flop. She stared at him.
"Sorry." He said. "I should go." He stepped backwards and his foot found a single small stone. He turned to walk back to the pick-up.
"Wait," she said. The look in her eyes was painful with sadness. She scanned about her. It was a dark night. A single yellow bulb cast a cone of light on a back door. The fluorescents inside beamed out the front of the store onto the pumps and a single yellow Honda that had to belong to whatever poor person was keeping watch over the store in the early morning quiet. The side of the store nearest them was lost in blackness with only a white wire cage holding those tanks you get for your backyard grill. "Come," she said.
Hidden by darkness and the wire cage they kissed and groped like teenagers. It was insanity and the thrill of it intensified the moment. He moved his hands over her ass and back. Hers slipped first beneath his shirt and then, when unable to move inside the waist of his shorts made fast work of his belt and fly until she gripped his swollen cock.
In response he slid his fingers to her tits and firmly took her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. After years of revealing secrets while drunk at an evening happy hour or while draining wine bottles on one of their patios until late into the night he knew just enough of her weaknesses to be dangerous. She moaned at the sharp sensation and tugged at his cock with equal indelicacy.
